Frederick V of Denmark

Born 31 March 1723, Frederick V was the son of Christian VI and Sophie Magdalene of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, raised in a house steeped in Pietism he would later reject. He became King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Schleswig-Holstein on 6 August 1746. Where his parents had been devout, he grew hedonist; where his father had silenced the arts, Frederick's first wife championed them, and public entertainment and free expression came back. He attended council meetings but alcoholism narrowed his grip, and the real work fell to able ministers shaped by Enlightenment thought. Under their hand commerce and emerging industry advanced, and Denmark-Norway stayed clear of the European wars that consumed his era. He died 14 January 1766, his personal influence slight, his reign measured by what his ministers built in his name.